Buffett/Berkshire - general news

[gfp]

16 minutes ago, 73 Reds said:

To me this is all much ado about nothing.  He is committed to the company and putting his money where his mouth is.  Who cares what day he buys the stock?  And of course he always has more inside knowledge about the company than just about anyone else.  So what?  If he complies with applicable restrictions that's all that matters.

 

Agreed.  Stay out of the "Sokol Zone" and you all good

[UK]

I think all this (Greg buying and Berkshire buybacking) are very great news. It is interesting they are resuming buybacks at 1.5 BV though. I thought WB was more of a 1.3 BV guy:). Perhaps they are relaxing this a bit, which only makes all the sense now. Maybe this could lead to a new 'soft floor' at 1.5 BV? Now, anybody want to guess were this mysterious IV until buybacks continues is in their heads? 1.65-1.7 BV? More:)?

 

Edited March 5 by UK

[CassiusKing1]

Tough crowd.  

 

Between Greg's first letter to shareholders on Saturday to these announcements today, I consider them home runs and should alleviate everyone's nervousness about the "change" at Berk.

He's doing things that have been asked, aligning himself with shareholders in all in on stock, utilizing the mountain of cash and doing buybacks and writing several pages letting everyone know the culture, philosophy and management will be the same going forward.  Not much more to ask for in a week.

[Malmqky]

3 minutes ago, UK said:

I think all this (Greg buying and Berkshire buybacking) are very great news. It is interesting they are resuming buybacks at 1.5 BV though. I thought WB was more of a 1.3 BV guy:). Perhaps they are relaxing this a bit, which only makes all the sense now. Maybe this could lead to a new 'soft floor' at 1.5 BV? Now, anybody want to guess were this mysterious IV until buybacks continues is in their heads? 1.65-1.7 BV? More:)?

 

Warren has preached for years book is no longer a good proxy. So who knows

 

I’m still anchored to 1.3x book tho

[UK]

3 minutes ago, CassiusKing1 said:

Tough crowd.  

 

Between Greg's first letter to shareholders on Saturday to these announcements today, I consider them home runs and should alleviate everyone's nervousness about the "change" at Berk.

He's doing things that have been asked, aligning himself with shareholders in all in on stock, utilizing the mountain of cash and doing buybacks and writing several pages letting everyone know the culture, philosophy and management will be the same going forward.  Not much more to ask for in a week.

+1

[UK]

3 minutes ago, Malmqky said:

Warren has preached for years book is no longer a good proxy. So who knows

 

I’m still anchored to 1.3x book tho

Yea I understand, but everyone is free to estimate IV however they like and we could still measure the outcome against BV. Historically, from what WB used to say or write about it etc, it was somewhere between 1.6 BV and 1.7 BV I think, perhaps slowly creeping higher with time.

[Munger_Disciple]

47 minutes ago, gfp said:

Greg is gonna do great.  For his family trust and for the big ole company he runs.  We're lucky to have him

 

 Amen to that!

 

If it is convenient for him to buy two days after the AR, that's fine by me. I actually feel better about Greg today than last weekend. Happy that he would be our CEO for the next two decades. 

[Pellom]

Becky gave him a great line to use going forward: "Wow, you're essentially paying yourself less than Buffett's $100K salary."

It's not really true, but makes for good politics. 

[gfp]

Just now, Pellom said:

Becky gave him a great line to use going forward: "Wow, you're essentially paying yourself less than Buffett's $100K salary."

It's not really true, but makes for good politics. 

 

Greg is paying the government more than Buffett's $100k salary - that much is true for sure.

[mengan]

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2026/03/05/watch-cnbcs-full-interview-with-berkshire-hathaway-ceo-greg-abel.html

Can anyone re-upload this to vimeo or youtube?

[mengan]

nvm, found an audio only versionhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKGqOS0kE3Q

 

Starting at 13:28

Edited March 5 by mengan

[gfp]

8 minutes ago, mengan said:

nvm, found an audio only versionhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKGqOS0kE3Q

 

Thanks!

 

I retract my previous statements about him not committing to purchasing the $15.xxx million bucks worth of shares on a specific date!  He clearly says later in the audio that he will wait the 48 hours and buy the stock.  Every year.

 

The Greg Abel version of a dollar cost average 

[UK]

I do not see anything very wrong with the timing, especially from shareholders perspective, because it is right after biggest dose of annual information (results and the letter) is being disclosed. He perhaps could do better for himself (and for more active folks:)) by timing it opportunistically, but for general BRK shareholders it is as fair as could be, no?

[Munger_Disciple]

WSJ piece on Abel interview:

 

https://www.wsj.com/business/berkshire-hathaway-resumes-share-buybacks-c4b1bbce?siteid=yhoof2

 

“I’m committed to doing this every year,” Abel said during an interview televised on CNBC. “My entire salary, as long as I’m CEO. We’ll file our 10-K, I’ll write the letter, and after the 48-hour cooling-off period, I’ll purchase.”

[jbwent63]

I just hope that telegraphing that the buybacks are on (a couple of months before we would normally find out with the Q1 10-Q) the shares don't go above the intrinsic value calculated by Omaha! I took the announcement as Abel demonstrating to shareholders that he will be more forthcoming with information. I wish the annual report was twice as long with much more information....but that's me. An information junkie.

[gfp]

6 minutes ago, jbwent63 said:

I just hope that telegraphing that the buybacks are on (a couple of months before we would normally find out with the Q1 10-Q) the shares don't go above the intrinsic value calculated by Omaha! I took the announcement as Abel demonstrating to shareholders that he will be more forthcoming with information. I wish the annual report was twice as long with much more information....but that's me. An information junkie.

 

He seemed to indicate that the "heads up we are buying back shares" disclosure was a one-time courtesy because of the long period with no buybacks and the change in leadership.

 

Markets have very short attention spans.  BRK will trade where with the market and Greg will probably get to retire some stock.  Maybe a couple of old timers call the hotline with blocks.  You never know

[Munger_Disciple]

38 minutes ago, gfp said:

 

He seemed to indicate that the "heads up we are buying back shares" disclosure was a one-time courtesy because of the long period with no buybacks and the change in leadership.

 

 

Yes that's what took away as well. One-time heads-up only as far as repurchases are concerned. 

[Parsad]

2 hours ago, UK said:

I think all this (Greg buying and Berkshire buybacking) are very great news. It is interesting they are resuming buybacks at 1.5 BV though. I thought WB was more of a 1.3 BV guy:). Perhaps they are relaxing this a bit, which only makes all the sense now. Maybe this could lead to a new 'soft floor' at 1.5 BV? Now, anybody want to guess were this mysterious IV until buybacks continues is in their heads? 1.65-1.7 BV? More:)?

 

 

2 hours ago, Malmqky said:

Warren has preached for years book is no longer a good proxy. So who knows

 

I’m still anchored to 1.3x book tho

 

You look at 2026 forward earnings on equity at a conservative rate...you are earning $65-75B a year without any real investment gains. 

 

$1.1T market cap minus cash on hand of about $300B...you are paying 10-11 times earnings for some of the best quality, mostly AI-proof, earnings in the world!  As big as it is, I'll take that all day and night! 

 

If it gets cheaper...just keep buying more.  You have the best, strongest company in the world sitting in your portfolio.  May not grow at 15% annualized any more, but I'm happy if it matches or beats the S&P500 long-term!

 

Cheers!

[ValueMaven]

Mr. Abel is such the right leader for this next chapter.  The next 20+ years under him are going to be awesome.  His segment on using his full salary to buy Berkshire was truly amazing.  

[KPO]

1 hour ago, UK said:

I do not see anything very wrong with the timing, especially from shareholders perspective, because it is right after biggest dose of annual information (results and the letter) is being disclosed. He perhaps could do better for himself (and for more active folks:)) by timing it opportunistically, but for general BRK shareholders it is as fair as could be, no?

I guess I could look at this as Greg putting his shareholder alignment goals ahead of his desire to maximize his personal profits.  Either way, this ~27 year Berkshire shareholder is happy to have someone of Greg’s ethical makeup and work ethic at the helm. 

Edited March 5 by KPO

[73 Reds]

11 minutes ago, Parsad said:

 

 

You look at 2026 forward earnings on equity at a conservative rate...you are earning $65-75B a year without any real investment gains. 

 

$1.1T market cap minus cash on hand of about $300B...you are paying 10-11 times earnings for some of the best quality, mostly AI-proof, earnings in the world!  As big as it is, I'll take that all day and night! 

 

If it gets cheaper...just keep buying more.  You have the best, strongest company in the world sitting in your portfolio.  May not grow at 15% annualized any more, but I'm happy if it matches or beats the S&P500 long-term!

 

Cheers!

+1  Couldn't agree more.  To your credit, the namesakes of this Board should do fine under just about any scenario short of Armageddon.  Select whatever valuation metric you like and buy shares whenever prices drop below your desired metric.   If/when shares become expensive, that's a dilemma many would like to experience.

[Munger_Disciple]

19 minutes ago, KPO said:

I guess I could look at this as Greg putting his shareholder alignment goals ahead of his desire to maximize his personal profits.  Either way, this ~27 year Berkshire shareholder is happy to have someone of Greg’s ethical makeup and work ethic at the helm. 

 

I echo your comments as a 25+year shareholder 

[Libs]

1 hour ago, Parsad said:

 

 

You look at 2026 forward earnings on equity at a conservative rate...you are earning $65-75B a year without any real investment gains. 

 

 

 

Operating earnings were $44 B this year, $47B last year. How are you coming up with $65-75B? I don't think look-through earnings get us there.

 

[UK]

I think Semper Augustus does quite decent job at estimating the earning power (Net income basis, page 146!:))

 

https://www.semperaugustus.com/clientletter

Adding some 10 percent growth for the coming year leads to ~31 USD EPS per B share, which is ~16x. Not bad comparing to SNP's 22-23x, almost 30 per cent cheaper for arguably not worse business, kind of obvious choice here. But perhaps also quite fairish on an absolute basis? But I used to think an obvious "undervalued" zone (where one could expect ~15 IRR), would be somewhere under 14x, which again translates into ~1.3 BV:). Nothing very wrong with the 10+ IRR though:) 

 

Edited March 6 by UK

[moatrep]

I think instead of investment returns you can put insurrance float growth of arguably 10b per year on the equation. That way you get 40b earnings operational and then add the investment portfolio and cash at whatever discount you like.

 

So in my case I will like to take the first 40b earnings operational at 15x, 600b.

Then add the investment portfolio at 200b, to get a nice discount for coca cola and different other businesses that I would not necesarilly like to hold.

Then the cash at face value, since we are in a high shiller ratio time, and then you get the IV.. But instead you get the cash at a 30% discount, so it's a solid hold at this prices.

 

It's an s&p500 hedged againts shiller ratio fluctuation and with shareholder friendly phillosofy. 

Edited March 6 by moatrep